In hydrocarbon producing wells, including gas wells in particular, fluid production is sometimes impaired by migration of water and other fluids into the wellbore. In production from gas wells, for example, the migration of water into the wellbore will reduce gas production significantly in a relatively short period of time, depending upon well conditions. A known technique for recovering or stimulating well production under such circumstances involves dispensing chemical additive "sticks" or "pellets" into the wellbore from manual or automatic dispensing devices mounted on the wellhead. Additive elements, such as so-called soap sticks, may be injected into the well to form a foamy mixture of any liquids, such as water, in the well to allow gas production to recover.
Various devices have been considered in the prior art for automatically dispensing or dropping the soap sticks or pellets into gas wells to stimulate production. Such devices may be manually or remotely controlled. However, there has been a continuing need for improvements in chemical additive or so-called soap stick dispensing devices, particularly for relatively low production wells or wells which are visited relatively frequently such as once a day or once every two days, for example. Even with this frequent visitation to the well it is still necessary and desirable to provide for a soap stick dispensing device which is uncomplicated and reliable in operation and which may be remotely controlled on a predetermined time duty cycle, or otherwise, to dispense one or more chemical additive or soap sticks into the wellbore.
Still further, the complexities of certain prior art devices are such that these devices do not lend themselves to reliable operation in unattended or remotely controlled wells which require soap stick dispensing devices. An important aspect of operating remotely located gas producing wells, for example, is the reliable operation of an additive or soap stick dispensing device, the ease with which the device may be installed, serviced and additive pellets or soap sticks reloaded into the device and the cost of adding such devices to a well which requires the type of treatment provided by the device. It is to these ends that the present invention has been developed.